BozoIn about 6th grade I started to rebel and refused to do the pledge getting me kicked out of class multiple times. Me and the school reached a compromise where I didn't have to say "God" anymore during it so I would always say the pledge far louder then anyone else and go "One nation under ____!" That held me over until high school when most teachers stopped caring if I did it or not.

SmellvinI always followed Calvin: "I pledge allegiance to Queen Fragg and the United State of Hysteria..."

phalsebobI can remember singing blah blah blah to the anthem and the Lord's prayer. I felt awkward saying the Lord's prayer, but looking back I bet my Pakistani classmates felt even more awkward.

erraticI left out the word "god" because my parents and church told me that it was a sin to use god's name in vain.

cognitivedissonanceI was an underoverachiever, so I recited it in Latin. I only ever hung around a C+ average, and it was gimmicks like this that made teachers constantly overestimate me for the first few weeks, realize I didn't ever actually do anything, and then get progressively more exasperated with me as I continually refused to exert myself in any way other than in self-amusement.

I also turned most of my tests in after folding them into increasingly elaborate origami structures. Luckily, this was before "No Child Left Behind", so I could get away with it. I'd not survive today.

BrazeI was an underoverachiever too, and I did a pretty similar thing. Instead of saying the pledge, I would slam out hot licks on my gibson flying v while riding around the room on a fuckin horse.

Cena_markEven as a great American I feel children are too young to truly understand what they are swearing an oath to. There really is no point in coercing them into the pledge for all it does is cheapen it. I remember just about everyone in highschool was cynical towards the pledge.

BaldrYou guys were actually doing the pledge in high school and junior high? The last time I remember reciting it was in third or fourth grade, and I spent my entire public school education in red states.

dairyqueenlatifahThat's a funny point. I spent kindergarten through ninth grade in Southern California (never more than ten minutes from Los Angeles) and we had to say the pledge, or at the very least stand during the pledge, every day until 9th grade, then it was limited to assemblies, graduation, etc.

Then I moved to Oklahoma and spent the rest of high school there. We never, ever said the pledge. But we did pray to Jesus before assemblies and ball games. And yes, it was a public school.

BaldrWe never did the Jesus thing either. I don't get it. Is it because I'm in my early 30's? Was post 9/11 a mini-great awakening for nationalism and public religious expression?

heyitslozeauAs a teacher, I never force a student to do the pledge. It seems silly to force someone to say something that is supposed to represent freedom.

oddeyeFreedom isn't free you fucking commie. You got to pray to a flag otherwise the yellow menace will steal your children.